Injury Prevention Potosi, MO

Injury Prevention in Potosi, MO. Whether you play a sport and are trying to get an opportunity at the next level, or you just retired and want to spend more time camping, don’t let the fear of reinjury keep you from the activities you love. While our professional Potosi, MO physical therapists work extensively with athletes and others to recover from injury, we are complete movement health specialists who can evaluate your body’s current condition and how you move to teach out measures that are proven to reduce the risk of injury. Make an appointment at Axes Physical Therapy today or contact the location nearest you.

Being physically active is an essential part of many Potosi, MO people’s lives. Many of us participate in active endeavors such as playing sports, kayaking, and more. Additionally, pursuing an active lifestyle helps stave off chronic conditions such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, dementia, depression, and certain cancers. Not only can physical therapy with one of Axes’ licensed Potosi, MO physical therapists allow you to come back even stronger after an injury, but our injury prevention experts can help you reduce the risk of further injury by improving your overall strength, flexibility, and posture. All of our treatment plans, both when helping restore motion health and when looking to improve it, are based on evidence-backed techniques and are personalized to each client and the activities they want to return to.

If you’ve recently sustained an injury, or have a persistent injury that is not getting better with time, contact the Axes Physical Therapy location nearest you in Potosi, MO for a complimentary injury screening. To take preventative measures and ensure that you can continue with your active lifestyle, read on below or call to speak to a physical therapist today.

Types of Injuries We Prevent Prevent in Potosi, MO

Most injuries fall into two categories:

Overuse injuries are injuries that are caused by repetitive movements over time. They are common in overhead athletes such as baseball or lacrosse players and typically are accompanied by joint pain.
Acute injuries are injuries that happen because of a specific and sudden trauma. Examples include falling or a sudden impact by an object or another person. These can result in bruises, twisting joints, fractures, and dislocations.

Some of the injuries we see most frequently, like rotator cuff tears, can either develop over time or occur suddenly. Other injuries, like ACL tears, are almost always the result of trauma, with an immediate impact to or twisting of the knee.

Injury Prevention Potosi, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Potosi

What Causes Injuries? | Injury Prevention in Potosi, MO

While anyone can suffer an injury almost at any time and for numerous different reasons, they generally occur because of dysfunction or imbalance and your body and between body parts. There are three common dysfunctions that lead to injury:

Muscle Imbalance

Muscle balance is key to maintaining healthy joints and reducing injury. Imbalance can lead to overemphasis for one muscle group, which may cause your body to force it to participate in an activity it shouldn’t. It also causes posture dysfunction, and one set of muscles becoming fatigued more quickly, increasing the risk of injury. Injuries can be caused by poor muscle balance between muscle groups, such as having a strong chest and weak back, or within muscle groups, such as the four muscles in the rotator cuff not having proportionate strength. Muscle imbalance can lead to:

Muscle weakness
Muscle inflexibility
Poor muscle recruitment
Poor coordination

Customized injury prevention with our licensed physical therapists in Potosi, MO will bring balance to your muscles.

Movement Dysfunction

Movement dysfunction can result in poor balance and lead to your body moving in unnatural ways, increasing your risk of injury. It can be caused by a range of musculoskeletal issues. It can lead to:

Joint mobility limitations
Muscle imbalance
Coordination deficiency
Reduced balance

When you first see our injury prevention experts in Potosi, MO, we’ll evaluate your medical records and perform a base evaluation to identify the root causes of your movement dysfunction. Then, in tandem with with your doctor or any additional providers treating you, we’ll develop a tailored treatment plan been proven to work through research and studies to get your movement back on track.

Posture Dysfunction

Bad posture is not just an issue for people who sit a lot. People who play sports and other physically active people can suffer from postural dysfunction when resting, sitting, or in certain body positions they need to be in for their sport. Good posture refers to correct alignments of the neck, torso, pelvis, and extremities in a way that does not remove the spine from its natural curves. Poor posture can bring the vertebrae closer together, which has a negative affect on our body’s ability to communicate with itself and reach the strength and range of motion you need to achieve. It can also lead to:

Muscle weakness
Muscle imbalance
Poor positioning
Joint mobility limitations
Poor muscle recruitment

By teaching you correct posture, we’ll aid in your injury prevention by ensuring you are using your muscles equally, your flexibility is not jeopardized, and your vertebrae remain in place.

Keys to Injury Prevention in Potosi, MO

You can still suffer an injury even if you did everything you could to reduce that risk. No one safety tip is 100% foolproof in injury prevention. However, there are precautions to greatly reduce the risk of injury:

Take a rest — Injuries are more common when you do not give your body time to restore itself. If you have a very high activity level, one or two rest days a week will allow your body to naturally heal any mild pain or soreness. If you have a more moderate activity level, take it easy after activity so you don’t overwork your muscles and joints.
Wear protective equipment — Helmets, shin guards, elbow pads, and other equipment necessary in sports and other activities can help prevent injuries such as bruises or concussions. If you’ve had a previous injury, your Potosi, MO physician or physical therapist may advise braces or Kinesio Taping® to stabilize the affected area. Other measures like tying your athletic footwear tightly can further help injury prevention by stabilizing your joints.
Improve muscle strength — Strengthening your muscles, tendons, and ligaments helps them stand up to the rigors necessary for in sports and other activities. In your personalized injury prevention program with our professional Potosi, MO physical therapists, we’ll work to achieve ideal muscle balance and strengthen the smaller muscles needed to be able to avoid injury in the activities you love.
Improve flexibility — Increasing your flexibility achieves three critical things for injury prevention:
1. It enhances your range of motion, which lets for the tendons and ligaments connecting your muscles to your bones to handle more forceful movements.
2. It improves blood flow, which carries nourishing blood to your muscles, eliminating waste byproduct and revitalizing the muscles.
3. It encourages good posture, which, as you read earlier, is is one of the most important factors of injury prevention.
According to a peer-reviewed sports medicine paper, sports like basketball that require sudden twists and movements require soft tissue with sufficient flexibility to incorporate and release the high amount of energy required. Stretching and warm up exercises before games or training further helps prevent injuries.
Use accepted technique — Through the years, each sport and physical activity develops a consensus of the best techniques to use. These techniques not only help you perform better but help reduce the risk of injury. Football players learn to tackle with the shoulder in order to avoid a head injury, and swimmers learn the proper strokes to make sure their muscles are moving unnaturally. We use DorsaVi video motion analysis to slow down your movement and educate you on how to improve it.
Listen to your body — If you feel pain in a muscle or joint, that means that body part is telling your brain that something isn’t right. If you feel something suddenly that doesn’t feel right, immediately withdraw from the activity and get the appropriate medical treatment. If your body does not feel well enough for a particularly rigorous workout, save it for another day.
Don’t play through an injury — While gritting through pain is often seen as a valiant act among competitors, forcing your body to perform with soft tissue or structural damage could exacerbate a current injury and leave you on the sidelines for much longer than if you had sat out at the time of the injury. Depending on the severity of your injury, you may use methods like the R.I.C.E. method, seeing your doctor, and a series of physical therapy sessions to make sure your body heals properly and can handle the activity you want to return to.
Play by the rules — Depending on the sport or activity and age level of the participants, it likely has special rules to help prevent injury. Penalties for targeting in football, rules against head-first sliding in baseball, and even the existence of special lanes on the street and sidewalk for bikers are examples of rules put in place to prevent injuries to ourselves and others. There’s a reason those rules exist, and a reason that there are penalties for them.
Speak a professional physical therapist — It’s a good idea to get a physical before another season begins or starting up a new activity or training regimen. While there, ask your doctor if injury prevention with a expert physical therapist in Potosi, MO is right for you. All of our techniques have been proven to help athletes remain healthy, and you plan will be completely unique to you and catered to how old you are, your injury history, and which activities you want to participate in.

Injury Prevention Potosi, MO | Sports Therapy | Physical Therapy Near Potosi

Injury Prevention for Older Potosi, MO Adults

Falls in the elderly accounted for more than 3 million emergency room admissions and over 34,000 fatalities. Research demonstrates that physical activity is invaluable in reducing the risk of falls. Other conditions that limit mobility like arthritis that are wear and tear injuries can be more bearable and take longer to progress with physical therapy exercises that keep your soft tissue and joints strong. While older adults typically do not exert themselves as much as an athlete does, healthy strength, balance, flexibility, and good posture are great agents in injury prevention.

Other services we offer in Potosi, MO include:

Potosi, MO Injury Prevention | Axes Physical Therapy

Being injured in something you love doing causes a mental block that won’t allow us to experience the same happiness. The licensed Potosi, MO physical therapists at Axes are here to develop your personalized injury prevention program that will keep your body as safe and healthy as can be, and your mind at ease that you do not have to fear going back to what you love doing most. You deserve to feel the physical and mental health benefits that you do not want to lose. Make an appointment online or call the location nearest you to start your program with one of our injury prevention experts in Potosi, MO.